Question:
I know that insomnia is common among people with ADD because they
"can't stop thinking". I understand that all too well -- I had a lot
of trouble getting to sleep as a child because of this. Add to that
the fact that I always had a very early bedtime -- I usually lay awake
for an hour or two before falling asleep, and I also had an irrational
fear that something terrible would happen if I were awake past a
certain time of night (and of course, the more frightened I became,
the harder it was to get to sleep).
I had other sleep-related experiences also, however, which have never
been explained. I'm wondering if anyone else here has experienced
something similar and, if so, knows what this phenomenon is called and
what causes it.
Answer:
I have insomnia too, but the sleep specialist says it's not "really"
insomnia, because the sleep study had me falling asleep as fast or
faster than normal. He called it "delayed sleep phase syndrome" or
something.
I find a similar picture actually is helpful to me to get to sleep: I
imagine my bedroom inside my house, then my house in the night air,
then the air in the atmosphere of the earth, then the atmosphere
around the earth, then the earth in the solar system, etc. Not sure
if this is related.
I don't believe it - someone else saw the rings too! I thought I was
the only one! Sometimes they expand outward, other times shrink
inward. The experience was only frightening because it was
accompanied by an uncomfortable, indistinct feeling which was almost
painful, but not quite. Almost like a headache, or eye pain from too
bright sunlight, but not quite. Turn on the lights, an it usually
stopped promptly. Turn them off again, it starts again.
It occurred to me much later, the rings are shaped very much like the
irises of eyes, complete with radial color variations (like radial
lines) and unevenness of the inner and outer diameters. Different
rings were different colors. They go from a blob in the center of my
field of vision and expand outward until they disappear ouside my
peripheral vision (or in the reverse direction), over a period of
about one second. Sometimes another one appears just before the last
one disappears, sometimes it waits until just after.
As I got older, the experience was less painful and less frequent, and
eventually stopped.
The only one of those I've experienced is the "numbness" of the
extremities (it's more like I just can't tell where my hands and feet
are) if I keep perfectly still long enough. And I always found that
feeling kind of interesting.
I've always heard that the "flying" feeling is very common, but I've
never had it. The closest I've had is something like dreaming I'm
tripping over my feet or falling down not-very-steep stairs, and
waking up with a jolt.
